Monday, August 10, 2015

Teach Your Kids How to Budget With Back-to-School Shopping

Back-to-school shopping can be frustrating for me as a parent. The girls bombard me with their needs and wants (sometimes confusing the two), they often want things that are unreasonably priced and that I know they won't really wear very often, and they get upset when I say no.

This year, I am approaching things a little differently. They haven't understood my budget limits in the past, so I am going to give them the responsibility of budgeting the money. Last week, I took them to JCPenney to start their back-to-school shopping. The results were well beyond what I expected! Each of my daughters made good choices, stayed within the budget, and bought things they loved. In order to make it work I used the following 4 strategies (make sure to scroll all the way to the end of this post for the chance to win a JCP $100 gift card!):

1. Give them a set budget

Obvious, I know. Since school doesn't start for us for another several weeks, my back-to-school clothing budget isn't fully funded yet. So, for now, I gave them each $65 to spend at JCPenney. If you like to do all your school shopping at one time, you can head to the mall for the day and give them a much larger budget. You can choose to give them their budget in the form of cash, or just an amount that you then pay for. I think both ways work just fine, as long as they know the number.

Part of the budget may include coupons you have, so make sure they know if you have them. On the day we went shopping, JCPenney was offering a 15% off coupon, so they knew they had a little wiggle room in their budgets. (FYI, JCPenney is offering a similar promotion from 8/9-8/11: 25% off when paid with JCP card, 15% off with other forms of payment.)

2. Give them guidelines

These are up to you. Maybe you don't want your daughters wearing skirts or dresses that are too short, or maybe your kids' school has a dress code that requires sleeves or closed-toed shoes. Remember that they are still kids, so giving them a good idea of what they are looking for will help them greatly.

Part of these guidelines should also be to remind them of what they need. Help them make a list of the things they really need before you go shopping so they can be sure to keep those in the front of their mind as they look at clothes. Children may or may not need extra guidance here—my daughter Bria has always kept a running list of the clothing items she wants and needs. She's very organized that way, but my other two daughters really have no idea what they need!

3. Help them understand the sales

Sophia immediately found a "buy one, get one free" sale on some things she really liked. I helped her understand which items the sale applied to and how that would affect her bottom line, but I did not make her decisions for her.

I noticed my girls didn't always notice the sales signs, either. Chloe was only looking at tags, so she was pleasantly surprised when I directed her attention to the signs that gave a significant discount on the items she was looking at. Pretty soon she was making sure to look at the signs all on her own.

4. Let them choose

This was harder than I thought for me. But it was the point of the exercise, so I bit my tongue a lot. I did make sure to ask them lots of questions about their choices as they came out of the dressing room, just to get them to think about things they might not normally think about. Not only did I want to feel confident about the choices they were making, I wanted them to feel confident about their purchases, too.

"Why do you like that shirt?"
"Do you like the way it fits you?"
"What will you wear that with?"
"What do you think of that color?"

Bria explaining her choices to me in the dressing room

Help them to think critically about their purchases, but empower them to make their own decisions. And, if you aren't thrilled with one of their choices, bite your tongue. It's a learning process, but I was really happy with the way my children each handled it. I was actually completely floored with how far each of them stretched their 65 dollars. Each of them used their money to find clothing items that fit their own personal style.

JCPenney is currently running a #bendthetrend campaign which is all about not looking like everyone else, finding your own fashion styles, and getting rid of social negativity through individuality. I love it! I think my girls did just that! Do you want to see what they got? Of course you do!

Bria's choices were all based on the versatility of the clothing and her particular needs. She wanted to buy things she could pair with several items that were already in her wardrobe. She's mostly stopped growing, unlike the other two girls, so she concentrated on fleshing out what she already had since she hasn't grown out of anything. According to Bria, her style is a mix of classic and rock. I like it. She's very comfortable in her skin, and always looks great. Here's how she's paired things with items already in her wardrobe.

Chloe's strategy was to purchase one pair of pants that she really loved, and a bunch of t-shirts to go with them. She went into the shopping trip knowing she really needed shirts the most, so that is what she focused on. Chloe's style is comfy, laid-back, and a little bit sporty. I think she did a great job finding things that she loves and making her money stretch pretty far!

Sophia latched right on to that buy one get one deal and ended up with two similar shirts, two pairs of leggings, a dress, and a cardigan. She was thrilled with her choices, and I was thrilled to see her branching out from her typical cheetah print fashion, even though there were cheetah print choices at the store.

Sophia loves to be dressy and girly, but she's also very active. She's super playful and fun, and I love how she paired the different prints together. They are perfect for her, and she definitely succeeds at #bendthetrend. She felt very grown up getting to make her own choices and stick to a budget. It was a great experience for all of us, and now I'm ready to give them that independence as we finish their back-to-school shopping this year!

What top trends are on your back-to-school shopping list for this year? Tell me in the comments for a chance to win a $100 JCPenney gift card!Entry Instructions:

No duplicate comments.You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older (or nineteen (19) years of age or older in Alabama and Nebraska). Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 2 business days to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.The Official Rules are available here.This sweepstakes runs from 8/10/2015 – 9/10/2015Be sure to visit JCPenney’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

This post may contain affiliate links, for more information, please see my disclosure.

Copyright Lara Neves 2005-2016

All photos and text on www.overstuffedlife.com are the sole property of Lara Neves and may not be reposted elsewhere.

However, I welcome linking back to this content. You may use one or two photos as long as you link back to the specific post on www.overstuffedlife.com. Please do not remove the watermark or alter the photos in any way.